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2. Middle English (1100-1500)
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy

(part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The
new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind

of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and
the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of

linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English

and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English
became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words

added. This language is called Middle English. It was the

language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would
still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

As to the ME period socially and politically it began as the
period of the decay of the tribal system and the formation of

feudalism. On the one hand it was progressive for the country
but on the other hand it resulted in isolation of different parts of

the country which in its turn resulted in the formation of the

local dialects. From the point of view of the development of the
language the ME period is characterized as a period of transition

from the synthetic structure to the analytical structure which the
Modern English language has now. There are two most

important processes which effected the language and which are
responsible for its change; they are:

– the phonetic process of reduction – unstressed vowels

came to be reduced; it was one of the main reasons for
dropping of endings;

– the grammatical process of leveling on analogy – the use

of different forms according to the same productivity
models.

3. Modern English

3.1 Early Modern English (1500-1650)
Early Modern English period of the development of the

English nation as a nation from the political point of view and

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